Video game maker opens studio in Dedham

Friday

Oct 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMOct 31, 2008 at 2:16 PM

Steve Adams

Rapidly growing computer game developer Turbine Inc. has opened a new studio at the Dedham Executive Center.

The Westwood company, best known for its “Lord of the Rings” multiplayer game, is hiring 100 new employees by the end of next year. To help accommodate its growth, the firm recently signed a short-term lease for about 22,500 square feet at the Dedham office building.

“It was a very convenient location in proximity to the existing headquarters,” said David Goodhue, assistant vice president at Colliers Meredith & Grew, which represented landlord KS Partners.

DTZ FHO Partners of Boston negotiated the lease on behalf of Turbine. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Turbine moved in earlier this month, Goodhue said, and has room for expansion within the building.

Turbine has been adding staff since receiving a $40 million venture capital investment in June from a group of backers including Time Warner. Earlier this fall, Turbine opened a studio in Redwood City, Calif., to provide a beachhead for a West Coast work force.

Turbine specializes in the massive multiplayer segment, in which thousands of players interact with others online in role-playing games. Turbine’s previous titles, including its popular “The Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar,” run on personal computers. Turbine’s next venture is developing video games playable on consoles such as Sony’s Playstation and Microsoft’s Xbox.

A group of Brown University graduates founded the company in 1994 and developed a role-playing game for Microsoft called “Asheron’s Call.” Turbine acquired the rights for “Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach” in 2005 before embarking on the “Lord of the Rings” game, which launched in 2007.

Dedham Executive Park, a three-story, 180,000-square-foot building, is located on Route 1A near Route 128. Owned by KS Partners LLC of Billerica, the building contains a fitness center and cafeteria. The largest tenant is engineering firm Woodard & Curran.